Conrad: Revenues and taxes!

By MEREDITH SHINER

05/01/2011 10:04 AM EDT

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) is not afraid to talk revenues and taxes when discussing a way forward in growing debate over how to deal with the nation's exploding deficit — and it's an approach that likely will put him at odds with his Republican colleagues as lawmakers filter back to Washington after a two-week recess.

Conrad, one of the members of the so-called budget "Gang of Six," said Sunday that any budget solution must address "both sides of the equation," but that's tricky math even for the three GOP negotiators who have been at the table with him now for months. Republicans, at least publicly, have stuck to their tried-and-true belief that the country isn't taxing too little, but instead spending too much.

The one place where members of both parties agree is that a long-term deficit solution needs to be paired with the pending long-term vote on raising the nation's debt ceiling, the trillions-dollar question is what that plan looks like.

"What I have to see is a comprehensive plan. I want to see the revenue system reformed, fundamental tax reform. I want to see the spending side of the equation dealt with," Conrad said on "Fox News Sunday" of what was required for his vote to raise the nation's debt limit.

"What we have right now, we have the revenue of the United States the lowest it's been in 60 years as a share of our economy. Spending is the highest it's been in 60 years as a share of our economy," he said. "We've got problems on both sides of the equation and the have to be addressed."

One proposal to curb the burgeoning budget is to cap domestic spending, like a plan proposed by Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). But Conrad said he wasn't sure whether such a plan would work.

"I have not seen the details of it, I don't know how it works or if it would work," he said.

But the clock is running on Congress to get a deal done, with the nation set to hit its debt limit sometime this month, with Treasury able to provide some cushion until July before America defaults on its loans — a scenario top administration officials and economists say would be "catastrophic."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters last week that leadership has a full menu of potential plans to vote on, from the Ryan plan to the Obama blueprint to the Gang of Six" proposal and a potential separate offering from Conrad on behalf of Senate Democrats. But the only measure that has legislative language attached is the House-approved Ryan budget, which Lindsey Graham conceded on Fox Sunday, is essentially dead on arrival in the Senate.

"At the end of the day, his plan is not going to make it through the Senate," Graham said.

Gang of Six negotiators have been coy about the details of their plan, refusing to discuss anything at length until their deal is done, though staff worked extensively through the recess, according to aides close to the talks.

Vice President Joe Biden is set to meet with yet another group of negotiators this week to try to find a way forward, with both parties digging in their heels and no clear path. The Gang of Six needs to finish its work quickly if it still wants to stay in the budget mix.

And at least Graham on the Republican side thinks there is some hope.

"The Gang of Six is creating the dynamic that leads to solutions," Graham said, reckoning back to the days of Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill. "When President Obama tried to overhaul the health care system in a partisan way, it cost his party."